Apples may be one key to your weight loss success.  

Apple slices

As a child, apples were a key staple food in our family.  They were more than just a snack, but could also serve as a healthy dessert.  An apple is a sweet, edible fruit that is produced by an apple tree.  Apple trees are cultivated worldwide, but in the United States, legend says it was spread by Johnny Appleseed.  No matter what the legend says, the apple appears to be from central Asia regionally.  

Apples are very nutritious.  They contain many vitamins and minerals but are truly only a good source for the antioxidant ascorbic acid or vitamin C.  Despite being a poor source of vitamins; apples are also well known as a significant source of polyphenols, dietary fiber, carotenoids, and other nutrients.   They are an exceptional source of fiber with over 2 grams of fiber per 50 calories of apple.    

There are many documents and studies that show fruit polyphenols likely promote anti-obesity effects and alter signal transduction in target cells and tissues, especially fat tissues.  A recent study reviewed looked at the significant components of apple and the evidence that indicates its potential to diminution weight gain[1].  This review summarized data from prior research about the apple and apple products that been have reported reducing weight gain.  The researchers did an extensive search to find these previous studies.  

The focus was to identify the human, animal, and cell culture studies that looked at the association between weight loss and apple consumption.  On important study showed that feeding of apples to rats in various forms in 8 experiments have demonstrated that this caused weight loss from 3 to 28 weeks.  In human trials, the obtained results from 5 experiments on humans have revealed that consumption of the whole apple or apple juice (240–720 mg/d) in 4–12 weeks by fat people can cause weight loss.

The bottom line:  Experiments on animals and humans have shown that the consumption of apples in different forms can cause weight loss in overweight subjects.  I would suggest whole apples over processed forms such as juice or apple sauce.  More research is needed to look at different forms of apples and as randomized controlled studies.  It is also necessary to do a meta-analysis to show how these factors affect the body fat percentage and whether this weight-lowering effect is statistically significant or not.  Am I concerned this study was more a review of prior research and not a true analysis?  No.  Research: Weight Loss Associated With Consumption of Apples was a prior article I did that showed similar results in a piece of true research. This review confirms the prior results.